Playing-cards



(N0 Modl.)

No.56n646.

S. KIMBLE. PLMING CARDS.

Patented Sept.15,1896.

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sAM KIMBLE, on MANHATTAN, KANsAs.

PLAYING-CARDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 567,646, dated September 15, 1896.

Application iiled August l0, 1896. Serial No. 602,357. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern):

Beit known that I, SAM KIMBLE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Manhattamin the county of Riley and State of Kansas,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Playing-Cards; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to playing-cards; and its object is to provide a novel series of cards, some bearing indicia of money-values and others indicia of commodities and valuations corresponding with the money-cards, adapted to be used in an instructive and amusing game, serving to demonstrate the relations of money and trade, and particularly some of the difficulties and em barrassments consequent upon a bimetallic currency.

In the drawings I have illustrated a set of cards which may be used in the game and also a teetotum used to establish the ratio between the gold and silver coins and to indicate a choice to the players.

l represents a gold coin, an eagle, of the value of ten dollars; 2, a silver coin of the value of ten dollars; 3, a bank-check for ten dollars, payable, at the holders option, in gold or silver 4f, a commodity, as, for example, one three-hundred-pound hog, value ten dollars; 5, twenty yards carpet, value ten dollars; 6, two hundred pounds nails, value ten dollars; '7, one barrel sugar, value ten dollars; 8, one suit of clothes, value ten dollars; 9, ten bushels w heat, value ten dollars; l0,one calf,value ten dollars; ll, one hundred pounds cotton, value ten dollars; l2, twenty bushels corn, value ten dollars; 13, thirty pounds coffee, value ten dollars, and T represents the teetotum used in the game.

In my preferred system of cards I make the gold-cards yellow, the silver-cards of a gray or silver color, the bank-check cards preferably green, and the commodities of any single convenient color, or of various colors.

The cards arein practice published in packs of fty, ten gold-cards, ten silver-cards, ten bank-check cards, and twenty commoditycards.

The teetotum T may be of the usual shape and may be made of any desired material,

for example, paper or tin. Its distinctive feature and the feature which renders it peculiarly applicable in this game is the arrangement of representations of ratios between gold and silver upon its several sections. These are arranged with reference to some of the actual uctuations which have taken place between the two metals, and, as here shown, are as follows, the mark X representing par value, or one hundred cents: GX-S100; GX-S95;'GX-Sl03; Gre-S105; GX S; Gfx-S75.

Vhile I have shown my coins as of the value of ten dollars, and have illustrated my game by certain examples of well-known commodities, it is obvious that the value of the moneycards and the designation of the commodities may be varied indefinitely without departing from the principle of my invention.

It is also obvious that the teetotum may have different arrangements of ratios, and that the cards and teetotum are capable of being used in any way to carry out the rules that govern business and finance, being at the same time subject to all the chances and fluctuations and gradations of actual business.

The game is intended to illustrate the natural results in every-day business life in the use of coinage as a medium of exchange of merchandise and the different results arrived at in values under different ratios of the bullion-value of the respective coinage metal. The game when played in different forms will illustrate the practical working of what is known as the Gresham Monetary Law and a great variety of other financial questions. The object of the game is to amuseV and to illustrate these various lessons of finance in a game actually played on the lines of business by two or more persons, as more fully dened in the following heading.

Rules of the Game.

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party having coin at the time having different ratios of bullion value will, in business affairs, pay out the cheaper. A Will tender in sale to B one of his commodity-cards, say, ten bushels of Wheat, placing it in the pile of commodity-cards of B,Whereupon B will settle the transaction by payinginto As pile of coinage-cards either a ten-dollar gold or a tendollar silver card at his option. If silver bullion be shown at the time by the ratio to be belovir gold, he should, as in actual business life, pay in silver. B then spins the teetotum, developing, perhaps, another ratio, and he tenders to A one of his commodity-cards, and A settles the transaction in the same manner. This is continued until each has made, say, iive sales and purchases, when the end of the game is reached. To determine who Wins, the coinage-cards are estimated on the basis of the last ratio indicated and played, and the one having the greatest value in bullion at that ratio Wins.'

The above may be said to be the simplest form of the game and is calculated to illustrate, especially, the Gresham law.

A second form of play may be as follows: Cards are distributed as iirst described, and as each player exercises his right of sale the opposite party, instead of settling the transaction with gold or silver coin cards, may exercise his discretion and settle the particular transaction With one of his bank-check cards, otherwise playing the game in the same manner as iirst described; but at the end of the play the holder of the surplus over the even divide of bank-check cards would have the option, before computing the value of the coin on the ratio indicated by the teetotum in the last play, to call from the party issuing the check-card its settlement either in gold or silver, as demanded by the holder of such surplus checks, and after having been so paid then the computation on the ratio indicated by the teetotum in last play determines which Wins.

The game may be played to suit the pleasure of the players in another form to bring into consideration the factor of what is known in commerce as the balance of trade, by allowing one player to make a larger number of plays than the other, and then When the agreed number of trades have been played or waived the party having the balance of trade in his favor shall have the right to demand settlement of such balance in Whichever coin he may demand. After such settlement the computation is made upon the ratio shown in last play by the teetotum, and the one having the greatest bullion-valueon such ratio Wins. Alarge number of other features of commerce may be readily played with the appliances connected with this game, which may readily suggest themselves to the pleasure of the players; as, for instance, the order in which the teetotum shall be spun creating a change of ratio in the coinage metal may be varied, either by making it between each play or only between a number of plays on either one or both sides, the idea being throughout that the players, actuated by a desire to win in iinal monetary value, Will be prompted to use the same judgment and business methods found in every-day life in the handling of a bimetallic currency and credit-checks as is exercised in actual commercial relations. Should it develop after playing and computing the agreed numberof times that the value of the coin, both gold and silver, held by each player Was even, then the game should be declared a draw.

Having fully described my invention, what I desire to claim is-- l. A pack of playing-cards, some of the cards bearing indicia of money-values, and others bearing indicia of commodities and valuations corresponding with the moneycards, substantially as described.

2. A pack of playing-cards, some of the cards representing coins of a bimetallic currency, and others representing commodities and valuations of the same corresponding With the money-cards, substantially as described.

3. A pack of playing-cards, some of the cards representing coins of a bimetallic cnrrency, some paper money, or bank exchange and others commodities purchasable by the coins or paper money, substantially as described.

4. A game apparatus comprising a pack of playing-cards bearing indicia of moneyvalues and others bearing indicia of commodities and valuations corresponding With the money-cards, and a teetotum bearing the representations of different ratios of gold and silver on the several sections, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of tWo Witnesses.

SAM KIMBLE.

itnessesz Jos. I-I. BLAcKWooD, WALTER F. ROGERS.

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